360 & PS3 have 'passed their use-by date' - DayZ creator

But next-gen consoles will face "a bit of a battle" with PC, suggests Hall.

Current-generation consoles have "really passed their use-by date", DayZ creator Dean Hall has claimed, before warning that next-generations consoles could face "a bit of a battle" with PC due to the format's innovative approach to gaming.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at gamescom last week, Hall said: "Even the next-generation consoles, [platform holders] see [the innovation on PC].

"They want to get in with it, they want to get in with the innovation and I think they see what innovation the PC space is driving and they want to see how they can capture that and have it occurring on the consoles."

PC has been a key driver for emergent business models, including free-to-play titles and games adopting the 'Minecraft model', which sees games released at a low price and iterated upon post-release.

"What's happened is, the consoles are at the end of their life, they've really passed their use-by date," Hall continued.

"Gamers wanted a console to have been here because a lot of console gamers... I get a lot of emails about the console game, 'Why don't you release this on a console? I've gone out and bought a PC. Why did I have to do that?'

'PC has really made a name for itself in the last year as being an innovator...'

"I think a lot of people have had that, and PCs have come down in price, so I think the [next-generation] consoles are going to have a bit of a battle. I don't know how far away they are.

"There are still obviously a lot of consoles out there, but PC has really made a name for itself in the last year or so as being an innovator and pulled a lot of people in. And there's people making a lot of money."

Hall's comments about platform holders looking "to get in with the innovation" echo those of THQ CEO Brian Farrell.

User Comments

It is that very innovation and rate of change of the PC that has allowed the consoles to dominate gaming BECAUSE they don't change. The developers have an unchanging platform. They program for 1 video card, processor, memory amount and motherboard architecture and that's it. Having to code for more than 1 video card, etc. increases development time and cost. All the things that have changed on the 360 and PS3 as consoles have NOTHING to do with gaming itself. The console might evolve from a gaming console to something more in each generation, but that static and unchanging nature for each generation is what has allowed gaming to flourish on a console as opposed to a PC.

I think the last one lasted less, I bought an Xbox 2001 at launch and the 360 came out 2005 I think. So this has been 7 years so far making it 8 next year when the new ones come out (and they will by the way, I would put money on it)

The Uncharted games in terms of tech haven't really jumped that much in my view. The London areas in Uncharted 3 for starters I felt were poorly desinged f and slightly buggy, nevermind the aiming in single player and other problems with it. Felt Naughty Dog were trying to do too much and had a gut feeling they were doing something else in the background which they were, The Last of Us (where most of the Uncharted 2 talent went) and the Vita game.

It's about losing ground/customers to MS and Sony thats why they bring out a new console and they want their consoles to be the only place to go, music, sports, films etc which I hate to but they want the whole pie as they each wanna make as much as possible through their respected brands.
At the moment both 360 and PS3 are doing things that were just not designed to and run far slower on startup than they did before thanks to adds on the 360 and other rubbish I just don't want.

Never get in this generation and while platform holders are blind to ways of making money other than nickle and diming developers and publishers for things that should be free. if every publisher decided not to publish their games on 360 then MS gets nothing. Platform holders should be REDUCING the barrier to entry for getting games on the system not stolidly sitting on it's high horse and dictating it's demands.

Then again...works for Apple. Developers pay $99 a year and lose %30 in revenue to Apple to get their Apps on the App store. A similar system for developers on XBL/PSN would probably work out much better for them than MS's current offering.

Yeah was going to post something like this earlier. It really doesn't matter about hardware even THQ CEO Brian Farrell said there is not about new graphics but the current gen can't coup with the new business model at the back end. So like Endless says "Payment systems, search systems, stores, communication, community tools, pricing" are all wrong for this new found market on the PC.
Minecraft was lucky as it had help from MS, but not everyone is going to get that.

The systems need to find a way to be open for F2P and community stuff but at the same time locked for security. No one wants to fork out this so called 40k to update there F2P game when they can just do it free of charge on PC.

One thing that PC will always have over consoles are mods. We wouldn't be getting anything like DayZ if it wasn't for home coding and that is one market the home consoles will never get.

I agree with them to a degree. But not from a hardware point of view, though they are getting a tad long in the tooth now.

For me everything BUT the games is drastically out of date. Payment systems, search systems, stores, communication, community tools, pricing and business models. And games are being restricted by all these periphery systems they rely on because they are too dated and in many ways obsolete.

So yeah devs can still make great games, but everything surrounding them is archaic by todays technology standards.

It frustrates me to see all these big name people mouthing off to the media, complaining about how lacking the current gen systems are - especially when other devs and studios are out there churning out all these amazing pieces of art that looks and performs surperbly, and are innovative and fun to play.

The problem isn't with how powerful (or not) the systems are, but rather how the devs decide to use the systems. If you create titles that relies on DX11 quality graphics or some fancy but badly coded engine that that relies on raw power, then sure you will definitely get better performance on the latest $5000 PCs, when compared to a $250 console.

It frustrates me even more when devs complain about how the current gen hardware is limiting their ability to innovate. For me innovation is not just about doing more with newer toys, but rather it's all about being able to create something new and unique using what you already have. In my opinion cramming more meat into a meat pie and baking it in a newer oven isn't innovation at all - however cooking up a 7 course gourmet meal using nothing but a sausage and a sock is.

The current gen is about 6 years old now, which has been the average life-span of the past 2 generation of consoles. Games still look fantastic nowadays; hell, they look better and better by the year. Compare, for example, Uncharted 1 and 3... you'd hardly guess they're both games for the same console.

What's with people killing off console gaming recently? Saying how crap graphics are on consoles compared to PC, how cool and original and unique the games are on PC, how consoles don't have free-to-play or how you can easily pirate stuff on PC.

After watching my roommate struggle to make Steam work with its infinite updating error for several months, not being able to play anything during that time; download a game for several days and having it not run on steam, so he had to copy and paste several files and folders and mess with the registries for a whole evening before finally make it run... I feel PC gaming stills severely lacks the "plug-and-play" factor of console gaming. So, until the PC catches up in that aspect, I still don't see it as the major platform for gaming.

I mean for starters the machines are seven odd years old now and I can't see "100" being all must buys for starters.
I mean there has always been a gap between PC and consoles but now it's far too much. I think my mobile phone has better tech than a Wii for starters, how long will it be for 360 and PS3? So the need to not lose ground/customers is vital.

I can also bet you money Gears of War Judgment will be rubbish, even two of my mates who love Gears are thinking it could be rubbish.

This is a very stupid article, why? Because its out of place and date. We can all say the WIi has passed its user date but not Xbox 360 and PS3 because they still sell games. There are over 100 games coming or ready to preorder. 100 games are a lot. That includes some highlights like Black Ops 2, Assassins Creed 3, Tomb Raider, God of War Ascension, The last of Us, Beyond, Gears of War Judgment. The writer of this article really is just so bored to come up with a stupid idea. I was looking forward for some interesting news but this is not. The next generation consoles are not even announced yet. Rumours? Are you that sad? Wii U is coming but it's not too far from PS3. People who make these articles really just confuse consumers and stop them hp from buying these current consoles. David Scammell, stop making *****ty articles.